319 The Hag

The closer I came to the location of my home, the more I felt her. It was like bugs crawling on my skin and it brought my mind right back to being a child and her feeding from me. I activated the tank's protections and it pushed away everything trying to attack it. For some reason, it also pushed away the Hag's feeling.

I smiled and knew that she was casting an effect on me, or the area, to unnerve me. Now that I knew it was there, I let my vigilance ignore it. The bugs on my skin feeling disappeared. I drove the tank on and several water beasts were smashed and run over. I couldn't stop to harvest them, either. I had one final appointment to get to and feasting on a delicacy would have to wait.

I drove the tank at full speed through the waterways and arrived where it seemed that I was always meant to be. I didn't slow down as I rotated the tank and drove it right up onto the bank. I could feel the Hag was waiting for me inside my house. I could also see the front door was smashed off of the hinges.

I wasn't someone to waste an opportunity for a free shot, so I shot the two long Kracken Tubes in through the door. I didn't activate them, though. I just used the penetrating shots. Wrecking my own home wouldn't help me in this fight.

I heard the Hag scream and I hopped out of the tank, made it be ignored and obscured, and ran inside the house. I followed the screams and came to a stop at the back of the house near the kitchen and the smoked meat room. The Hag's shoulder was pinned to the wall with a four foot long log. The other had just missed her and she was using it to try and pull herself off of the one pinning her.

“I can't believe that actually worked.” I said and her eyes went right to me.

“GET HIM!” The Hag yelled.

I felt ten people materialize from above me and drop down to attack with knives and short swords. I held my hand out and my magic deactivated their enchanted weapons, then my sword flashed and ten hands with weapons fell to the floor. The ten young men screamed and clutched their hands as they dropped to the floor as well. None of them had seen me move.

“So, you've ascended.” The Hag said, her voice full of pride. “I've worked so hard to try and make the perfect man.”

“You're not arrogant or anything.” I commented and she laughed.

“Why shouldn't I be? You are my perfect specimen.” The Hag said and pulled on the log holding her. “Two decades of hard work on my part has made you into exactly what I want you to be. No one can touch you now.”

“You made me into a pathetic creature that has had everything ripped away from him.” I said and my magic swirled out. The men bleeding around me cried out and tried to move away.

“Yes, yes! Nothing can contaminate my work! Only I can be with you! Only I am allowed to hurt you!”

“You killed my wife.” I said and five of the men burst into blue flames and started screaming. “You killed my SON!” I yelled and the other five shrivelled up and then exploded.

“He lived past birth?” The Hag asked, surprised. “I never expected... I thought... if he lived, he would have drained the cow that birthed him within an hour.”

The dam inside of me shattered and all of the emotions inside of me came pouring out. I dropped to the floor and held my hand over my face as my body seemed to rage against itself. Everything that's happened in my life passed before my eyes. The Hag's treatment of me, the village and their treatment of me, the army and their treatment of me, the capital and their treatment of me, the slavers and their treatment of me... I saw it all.

Then... the images changed. Diane's kind face as she taught me to read. Alex as he taught me the army essentials. Donna as we learned to work together. Sandra, the temporary CO as she taught me etiquette. Gillis as she took care of me in training camp. Anna, the woman that looked like the Hag, making herself less attractive for my sake. The cooks in the mess hall. Gary teaching me everything about maintenance.

That wasn't all. The young girl Gloria being my friend, even though everyone else in town detested me. Her mother making me cookie bread. Steven the distributor as he laughed and filled out the orders. The woman at the PX that was nice to me after I healed her splinter. The work crews in the new territories helping me build the barricades. The thankful people we saved there. Stanley, the nice guard in the jail.

Then there was Helena's heartfelt promise to rescue me from the army.

That was the key. She didn't have to do that. She didn't have to help me at all. I would have given her everything anyway. She put herself in danger, just for me. She ran everything, so I wouldn't have to worry. She gave up her birth family and even sacrificed her life to try and save our son. She did it all.

Now there was Shelly. Perfectly innocent Shelly. Through it all, from the very beginning, she liked me. Smelly, dirty, scarred, me. She talked to me and was nice to me, even way back then. She even kissed me, long before I understood what that meant. What it could mean. What it really meant.

My magic slowly receded and I opened my eyes. The Hag was almost at the end of the log and I slowly stood and looked at her. The betrayal marks were on her forehead and hands.

“Are you done breaking down?” The Hag asked. “Finish pulling me off of this thing and we can create the next generation of magic users.”

“Create?” I asked as I let the thought roll around in my mind.

“Yes. There are dozens of young children in the village. Now that I know the method with you worked, we can start making an army to take over the world!”

“That is a wonderful idea.” I said and she smiled that terrible smile, the one she always used before she drank my blood or filleted me. “I just need to do something first.”

“Yes, get me off of this thing.” The Hag said, then she gasped and blocked my sword strike to her heart with her own blade. “What are you doing, you fool?!?”

“I thought I would get rid of the competition.” I said and swiped at her foot, then at her free hand.

The Hag dodged as much as she could while pinned to the wall. “Competition?”

“You told me the secret! I don't need you anymore, you old Hag!” I spat at her and gauged her range of motion. It was fairly short. The pivot point being the log she was almost off of. Perfect.

“David.” The Hag said in a deep voice laced with magic. “You will always need me.”

I felt her magic flow over me and into me. It started to merge with my own, then it stopped. My magic was much too strong for it and it grabbed on as hers tried to retreat.

“What... what are you doing?” The Hag asked.

“I had always thought that you were too strong to fight. Both physically and magically. I have always thought that, because I never had anyone to compare you to.” I said and stepped forward. “Now I do. Strength isn't just physical. Or magical.”

The Hag huffed. “If you don't have those, what do you have? Nothing!”

“Strength of character.” I said and my blade flashed across the log and split it in two.

The Hag had a look of triumph on her face for a second as she was freed... and then she looked down to see the thin line across her chest. “What... how...”

“I used the pivot point to strike and not at you.” I said. “You can't dodge what isn't aimed at you.”

“I... I taught you... that.” The Hag whispered as her breath seemed to leave her.

“Yes, you did.” I said and plunged my hand into her chest and pulled out her still beating heart.

_______________

You have a critical choice to make. Will you fulfill your destiny?

A) Do what you must. B) Spit in destiny's eye.

After everything that's happened, I'm definitely choosing B.

_______________

“My instincts are telling me to consume this. Drink your heart's blood and swallow all of your magic.” I said and another look of triumph passed over the Hag's face. “It's just too bad that you've trained me to forge my own way in the world.”

“NO!” The Hag yelled.

I crushed her heart and used Immolation on it as I dropped it to the floor and stepped on it.

“NOOO! NOOOOOOO!” The Hag screamed and screamed as her heart and then her body ignited in bright blue flames.

I stood there and watched without emotion as she slowly withered and the decades and decades of magic that she had gathered and stolen was released. I activated my medallion and none of it touched me. Not the flames at my feet. Not the evil magic swirling around. Not the emotions being released, either.

“You really shouldn't keep things inside like that. It could damage the people around you.” I commented.

The blue flames flared, as if angry, then they were snuffed out and only two small piles of ashes were left. I knew exactly what to do with them. I gathered up the separate piles and made a batch of number ten potion. I didn't bother infusing it, though. I just mixed it up and put some into a little clay jug with the Hag's heart ashes. It went solid a moment later as it copied the jug's properties.

I poured the rest of the potion into a larger jug and mixed in her body's ashes. It also went completely solid. I climbed up to the top of my house to set the little jug in the corner of the roof and walked over to the other end of the house and put the larger jug there. I had been tempted to cook her ashes into meat and feed her to the panthers, then thought better of it.

There could be no chance of her ever coming back. Making her ashes into ceramic was fitting, because she would always exist where she deserved to be. Exiled to the marsh.

I went to my stash and gathered up the remaining vials of fungus powder. There were only 16 left and that was all that was left in the world, as far as I knew. There would be no way to scour the marsh to look for any other outcroppings of them or the mushrooms. The panthers could be anywhere near the magic heavy areas.

Then I had a neat idea. I had the fungus powder. I also knew a lot about growing, splicing, and breeding plants now. If I could harness even a fraction of the powder into a similar or viable plant, distilling it back down into a similar powdered state would be easy. Getting it to work would be the problem.

As I made a new pouch to hold the precious vials, I had another neat idea. I had access to a virulent strain of magic grass that grew faster than anything else in existence. It would take some work and might use up a lot of the powder; but, if it was at all possible, I could get it all back within six months.

I smiled and packed that up, then went over everything. Instead of hauling the potion setups back to town, I would just buy more. I kicked one of the piles of ash of the Hag's men as I passed and chuckled. I gathered them up and made another number ten potion, dumped all of the ashes in with their ten severed hands. I didn't bother infusing it this time either and let their own innate magic activate the potion.

I dropped the ruined metal pot outside the front door and looked at the door, then looked up at the webs closing in on the roof. “You can have it now.” I said and deactivated the protective enchantments. “Enjoy the nice coziness inside.”

There was a little chittering from the webs as I walked over to the tank and packed my things inside, turned it around, and drove away into the waterway. I had a girl to save from her controlling family and a new house to build right next to the town.

No, not a house. I've done that already. I thought and glanced down to see that old storybook. On the front was a picture of a castle. Yes, that would be more fitting. Much more fitting. The Marsh Man's Castle. I thought with a laugh and drove on. Shelly should really like it, too.

Who needs to take over the world when I can build my own little world right here?

Bokuboy